MTV’s “Generation Cryo” tracks “anonymous” sperm donors

Kids conceived via anonymous sperm donor now form a new subset of the population, apparently large enough to support an MTV docudrama. “Generation Cryo” tracks 17-year-old Breeanna, an only child who logs onto the Donor Sibling Registry and finds 15 half-siblings.

This may be shocking and emotionally trying for some viewers. It’s a simple fact of life for a growing number of kids.

“We would never out anyone,” Wendy Kramer, director of the Donor Sibling Registry, said on a panel here. People come to the registry voluntarily.

Why go looking for potentially upsetting news? “A lot of us just want that closure,” Jonah (first name only) told the press conference.

The network will provide counseling if needed, as it has done for other series (like “Catfish”).

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.